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Earlier, you’ve read my post on the beauty of Glowing Green Smoothies. But while greens are wonderful, there’s a whole world of blended delicacies to explore! And explore I did, because I severely burnt the roof of my mouth on Buffalo “Chicken” Dip during the Super Bowl and could only consume liquids for days. These delicious smoothies gave my VitaMix a workout and got me through without killing my soul.

The creator of the GGS, Kimberly Snyder, has a variety of smoothies up her sleeve, and this is by far my favorite. It’s so simple but satisfies my chocolate tooth and keeps me full for a long time. Exact instructions can be found on her website, but I just make it with an açai packet, unsweetened almondmilk, cacao powder, a few drops of liquid stevia, and half an avocado. I also add a half tablespoon of chia seeds sometimes, for the extra Omega-3s and iron.

Sometimes I just want to eat my sorrows with cake, but I almost never should. I was feel supremely crappy about my mouth burn, but turned to Angela Liddon of ohsheglows.com to turn my frown upside down, and smile I did. I made a few substitutions based on what I had in my kitchen. I chose Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Rolled Oats, a tablespoon of cacao, a few drops of stevia, left ouf the ice cubes, and used a tablespoon of almond butter. Apparently, if you REALLY want it to taste like cake batter, you gotta go with cashew butter, but mine tasted absolutely decadent all the same. I ran the nutrition, and while this isn’t a light smoothie by any means, it still manages to be a power house of nutrition. My version was 462 calories, 20.9g of fat, 623.9mg of potassium, 14.7g of fibers, 14.2 g of proteins, and 11.% Vitamin A, 18.2% Vitamin C, 31.5% calcium, and 27.8% iron. Pretty sexy for cake batter! Even better, it kept me full for HOURS, and gave me lots of energy to tackle my day.

Yes, another decadent smoothie from ohsheglows! I promise I was drinking green smoothies, too, but drinkable gingerbread is hard to pass up. It turned out a little too strong for my tastes – I went with the whole two tablespoons of molasses instead of first testing the waters with one – but the nutrition value to sucking it down was well worth it. 330 calories, 2144.2mg of potassium, 9.7g of fiber, 5.4g of protein, 50.1% calcium, and 42.4% iron. WOW. The only time I think I get more iron than this is when I eat injera. I’m definitely going to continue to incorporate molasses in my diet, just in smaller amounts more frequently.

4. Cafe Gratitude’s “I AM COOL”

Don’t I look cool, sipping on I AM COOL?

This is DEFINITELY more like a milkshake than a smoothie, but Cafe Gratitude still manages to make this crazy amazing shake almost healthy with the inclusion of Vitamineral Green. I’ve always wanted to try this lovely concoction, but the $9 price tag kept me away until I literally could consume nothing else but liquids. Suddenly, it was just like buying lunch. If you love mint chocolate chip ice cream, you have GOT to try this. It sent me straight to heaven, and I rarely if ever choose mint chocolate chip ice cream over, say, cookie dough or chocolate hazelnut. It’s totally divine and worth the price of admission.

5. Miso Soup

My massive mug of miso soup. Yay, alliteration!

While waiting for my mouth to heal, I didn’t constantly crave sugar and chocolate, despite what this post suggests. Miso soup is definitely not a smoothie, but if you’re ever in a similar situation where you can’t have solid foods or anything too hot, this is how I navigated dinner time. You’re not supposed to boil miso, and if you leave the bits like seaweed and tofu out, you get to skip the boiling all together, allowing you to control what temperature you want your soup. I stirred in about 1.5Tbsp of red miso into two cups of very warm water, let it dissolve, season with a couple dashes of mirin and tamari, then poured it into a big mug. If you don’t have tamari, soy sauce works fine, I just usually avoid adding gluten when it’s unnecessary. Allow it to cool until you can comfortable put your hands around the mug, then cozy up on the sofa and sip your supper. It’s comforting, nutritious, low calorie, and fills you up.

I would never in a million years give up solid food by choice (juice fast, master cleanse, NO WAY), but I enjoyed the opportunity to explore healthy and delicious smoothies. Fun fact – during those three days, I had double the recommended about of fiber, tons of protein, lots of potassium, and had no trouble meeting my nutritional needs, while most days I plan dinner around what vitamin I’ve missed out on during the day. There’s definitely something to be said for including smoothies into your life!

Never in my life did I imagine I’d one day enjoy green smoothies, because nothing sounds appealing about lettuce and celery blended. But the crazy beautiful nutritionist Kimberly Snyder changed all that for me with her Glowing Green Smoothie recipe and her promises that it tasted sweet and delicious. Okay, I’ll bite.

My Glowing Green Smoothie

I’ve been making this baby for over a year, and find when I stop for a while, I miss the burst of nutrients and energy in the morning. I actually just ended a two month hiatus, as my CSA box lately has been root vegetables and not so many leafy greens. I was totally inspired when my box came yesterday with romaine, kale, celery, cilantro, and tangelos. Perfect for smoothie making!

I highly recommend following Kimberly’s recipe to start, which will give you a better feel of what the proportions should be, but once you get the hang of it, go crazy! Today I chopped up a head of romaine, 6 big dinosaur kale leaves (torn from the stem), 4 stalks of celery, a pink lady apple, a tangelo, a frozen banana, a handful of cilantro, and the juice of one lemon. Behold! A green smoothie that totally glows.

I have Kimberly’s book, The Beauty Detox Solution, and it’s filled with great nutrition advice that’s inherently vegan (though has options to help omnis lean into it). It’s a little intense – no gluten, no soy – but all of her recipes are delicious and her advice is sound. In the months leading up to my wedding, I can definitely see myself getting gung-ho about it, but in the meantime, I’m a happy dabbler and enjoy the occasional smoothie.

My comfortable life stopped feeling comfortable when I realized how much the earth is suffering for my convenience. I dedicated a year to learning about sustainability, environmentalism, veganism, and kindness. Now I'm putting it into practice.